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Energy Resources and Carbon Management

Carbon Storage Program

More »
  • Highlights
  • Projects
Highlights
Projects
Geological Carbon Sequestration
Barry Freifeld (left) with Program Manager from Australia, Sandeep Sharma preparing equipment for geologic carbon sequestration project.

The Carbon Storage Program uses theory along with lab, field, and simulation approaches to investigate processes needed to inform and guide the safe and effective implementation of geologic carbon sequestration.

Highlights

Project

Brine Extraction and Storage Test (BEST)

The overall objective of the EPRI-led BEST project to be performed at the Lansing Smith electric generating station near Panama City, Florida, is to help develop cost-effective pressure control, plume management and produced water strategies that can be used to improve reservoir storage efficiency and capacity, and demonstrate safe, reliable containment of CO2 in deep geologic formations with CO2 permanence of 99% or better.

Project

Core Carbon Storage and Monitoring Research (CCSMR)

The Core Carbon Storage and Monitoring Research Program (CCSMR) aims to advance emergent monitoring and field operations optimization technologies that can be used in commercial carbon storage projects.

Project

Off-shore Geologic Carbon Sequestration in the Gulf of Mexico (GoMCarb)

LBNL is working with the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) and other partners in the Gulf of Mexico Partnership for Offshore Carbon Storage (GoMCarb) aimed at ensuring safe, long-term, and economically viable offshore storage of carbon in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) region.

nrap_image2
Project

National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP)

The National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) — an initiative within DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and led by the National Energy Technology Laboratory—applies DOE’s core competency in science-based prediction for engineered–natural systems to the long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Program Overview

The Carbon Storage Program uses theory along with lab, field, and simulation approaches to investigate processes needed to inform and guide the safe and effective implementation of geologic carbon sequestration. Through collaborations with partner organizations that lead major field projects involving CO2 injection, the Carbon Storage program investigators confront and solve real-world challenges in monitoring, modeling, and data analysis. Through applying their world-leading capabilities, EESA investigators develop innovative and deployable scientific solutions to these challenges with an emphasis on applicability, knowledge dissemination, and technology transfer.

Key topics of investigation include:

  • Capacity, trapping mechanisms, and permanence
  • Field studies at CO2 injection sites, including fluid sampling under in situ conditions (U-Tube)
  • Monitoring and verification using geophysical (e.g., seismic) and surface methods (e.g., InSAR)
  • Containment assurance (leakage, seepage, and well-blowout impacts and mitigation)
  • Impacts on the environment, including to groundwater and induced seismicity
  • Risk-based assessment and certification
  • Performance prediction (using TOUGH suite of codes)
  • CO2-enhanced hydrocarbon recovery options
  • Machine learning for faster simulation and data analysis

 

Featured Projects

Project

Brine Extraction and Storage Test (BEST)

The overall objective of the EPRI-led BEST project to be performed at the Lansing Smith electric generating station near Panama City, Florida, is to help develop cost-effective pressure control, plume management and produced water strategies that can be used to improve reservoir storage efficiency and capacity, and demonstrate safe, reliable containment of CO2 in deep geologic formations with CO2 permanence of 99% or better.

Project

Core Carbon Storage and Monitoring Research (CCSMR)

The Core Carbon Storage and Monitoring Research Program (CCSMR) aims to advance emergent monitoring and field operations optimization technologies that can be used in commercial carbon storage projects.

Project

Development of High Sensitivity Engineered Optical Fiber for Distributed Acoustic Sensing (HS-DAS)

The “Development of High Sensitivity Engineered Optical Fiber for Distributed Acoustic Sensing” project (HS-DAS) aims to build on the success of distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technology for monitoring CO2 sequestration by increasing the sensitivity of DAS sensing cable. DAS is an emerging technology that uses commercial telecommunications optical fiber to sense acoustic waves.

Project

Large-scale carbon storage in saline volcanic basins

This project aims to critically evaluate this new storage paradigm focusing initially on two regions: Hawaii and Japan. The ultimate goal is to develop a reservoir model to assess the viability of large-scale CO2 storage in known and generic saline volcanic basins.

nrap_image2
Project

National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP)

The National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) — an initiative within DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and led by the National Energy Technology Laboratory—applies DOE’s core competency in science-based prediction for engineered–natural systems to the long-term storage of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Project

Off-shore Geologic Carbon Sequestration in the Gulf of Mexico (GoMCarb)

LBNL is working with the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) and other partners in the Gulf of Mexico Partnership for Offshore Carbon Storage (GoMCarb) aimed at ensuring safe, long-term, and economically viable offshore storage of carbon in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) region.

Program Contacts

David Lee Alumbaugh
Carbon Storage Program Lead;
Hydrocarbon Science Program Lead;
Staff Scientist

Helen G. Prieto
Program Operations Analyst

News & Events

Chun Chang Places Second in Annual Berkeley Lab Pitch Competition

January 18, 2023

Commercializing Berkeley Lab inventions is an important part of the Lab’s mission, and one that requires strong communication skills. For example, Lab inventors need to be able to pitch their ideas to external partners and potential funders.  The annual Berkeley Lab Pitch Competition occurred on October 27, 2022 and is a part of an entrepreneurship…

EESA Scientists Collaborate With Universities to bring Environmental Science Research Opportunities and Training to Students Underrepresented in STEM

January 13, 2023

  EESA researchers are collaborators in three of the 41 projects awarded in December by DOE through its Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) initiative.  RENEW aims to build foundations for research at institutions that have been historically underrepresented in the Office of Science (SC) research portfolio. The initiative provides opportunities for undergraduate and…

Berkeley Lab Hosts Successful CouFrac 2022 Conference

November 29, 2022

The 3rd International Conference on Coupled Processes in Fractured Geological Media: Observation, Modeling, and Application (CouFrac 2022) took place at Berkeley Lab and online everywhere else on November 14-16. Berkeley Lab Research Scientist Mengsu Hu led the conference along with Berkeley Lab Senior Scientists Carl Steefel and Jonny Rutqvist to explore the exciting new advances…

Cracking the Secrets to Earthquake Safety, One Shake Simulation at a Time

This article first appeared at https://newscenter.lbl.gov/. A new experimental capability, designed to replicate realistic earthquakes in the laboratory, paired with the world’s fastest supercomputers, will help lead to resilient buildings and infrastructure across the U.S. To make sure our buildings and infrastructure are earthquake-safe, we must understand how seismic activity affects different structures. Miniature models…

Christophe Tournassat Honored by Clay Minerals Society

November 14, 2022

Christophe Tournassat, currently an EESA visiting faculty scientist in the Energy Geosciences Division, has been named by the Clay Minerals Society to receive the Marion L. and Christie M. Jackson Mid-Career Clay Scientist Award for his contributions to the clay mineralogy field. He will receive the award during the 60th anniversary of the Clay Mineral…

EESA Geophysicists Explore Landslide Hazard Using Novel Remote-Sensing Approach

October 17, 2022

Torrential rains in Venezuela early last week provoked a devastating landslide, adding to the deluge of stunning climatic events of the past month. With locations around the globe receiving larger amounts of intense rainfall over shorter periods of time under climate change, bigger, costlier landslides that directly impact infrastructure have become more frequent–and urbanization exacerbates…

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